Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Scholars and silent sages read and study the old holy books until they are worn out.
Yet the Name never comes to their minds, and they never go home to the quiet place inside themselves.
Death hovers over their heads, and the trickery hidden inside them brings them down.
You can read and read until you are tired, and still miss what matters most if you never look inside.
The verse pictures pandit, scholars, and silent sages, worn out from studying the Vedas, the old holy books. This is a picture of any serious student in any tradition. The problem is not the books. Nah nij ghar hovai vaas: they don't live in nij ghar, their own inner home.
Think of learning a whole map by heart but never leaving your room. The verse also says death hangs over such people, and the tricks hidden inside them bring them down. The cure is not more reading. It is turning inward, where the Name already lives.
When has doing more and more not helped, until you slowed down and went inward?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI